Five years ago, the European Commission established the Digital Transport and Logistics Forum (DTLF) whose main objective was to replace paper by digital as a medium for exchanging freight-related information, regardless of the transport-mode. To be a bit more precise, “digital’” is to be understood as datasets and not as, for example, pdf’s attached to emails.
Active participation of all stakeholders, not in the least those representing Inland Navigation, contributed to what is now called eFTI-regulation. The regulation (EU) 2020/1056 was published on 15 July 2020.
In a nutshell, the regulation is about data exchange between business and authorities only. For member states it will be mandatory to accept datasets instead of any other medium. Businesses still have the liberty to use the media they prefer. Data-exchange will go through certified eFTI-platforms.
Regulation shall enter into force on 21 August 2024. Between now and that date, the EU IWT Platform will – together with other stakeholders – work on defining datasets that are common for all transport-modes, functionality of the eFTI-platform, governance etc. And, last but not least, we will make sure that all the excellent work done so far regarding electronic data exchange in Inland Navigation, fits well into this new development.
Further information can be read in this brief presentation that was kindly put at our disposal by our colleagues from the European Commission.
